Optical disc recording/reproducing apparatus and data recording method for use with such apparatus

ABSTRACT

An optical disc recording/reproducing apparatus and a data recording method for use with such apparatus are disclosed, wherein data can be recorded on an optical disc with safety and reliably by using the so-called overburn-based recording technique. The apparatus includes an optical disc drive ( 1 ) and a optical disc drive control unit ( 20 ) for causing various instructions to be delivered to the disc drive and for causing the state information to be obtained from the disc drive, under control of the control unit ( 20 ), wherein the control unit ( 20 ) includes functional components that may be operated under control of the control unit ( 20 ), such as a memory unit ( 12 ) for storing the nominal recordable last position retrieved from the optical disc, a command issuing unit ( 10 ) for delivering trial writing instructions or commands to the disc drive, a result code obtaining unit ( 11 ) for obtaining the error information from the disc drive that indicates whether any error occurs when a particular trial writing instruction or command is performed on the disc drive, and a recordable last position setting unit ( 15 ) for determining an end burst position based on the error information and the recording position information and setting a recordable last position between the end burst position and the nominal recordable last position. The present invention allows for the use of the overburn-based recording technique that provides an additional recording time that is sufficient to permit data to be recorded with safety and reliably, regardless of any variances that exist between individual optical discs.

BACKGROUND

1. Technical Field

The present invention relates to an optical disc recording /reproducingapparatus and a data recording method for use with such apparatus. Moreparticularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and methodfor recording the data on an optical disc, such as CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R,MO and the like, wherein the data recording can be performed beyond thenominal storage capacity of such optical disc that contains anyparticular information such as addresses and the like previously writtenon the wobbles thereof.

2. Prior Art

An optical disc such as a write-once CD-R, rewritable CD-RW and the likecontains the embedded information (ATIP information) such as addressesand the like that have previously been written in a particular sequenceon the wobbles in accordance with the specifications, and theinformation that represents the locations (addresses) on the opticaldisc may be retrieved by reading the embedded information from the disc.The embedded information includes the information items as listed inTable 1, which may be written in the read-in areas and other areas.

TABLE 1 M1:S1:F1 Content 0:0:0 time code in read-in area and programarea 1:0:0 time code in read-in area, PCA and PMA 1:0:1 recording power,reference speed, application code and disc type ID 1:1:0 read-in areastart time 1:1:1 read-out area start time 0:0:1 speed range, recordingstrategy and OPC parameter at reference speed 0:1:0 recording power andOPC parameter at low & high speeds 0:1:1 reserved

As shown in Table 1, (1:1:0) and (1:1:1) in the MSB bits, represent theinformation for the read-in area start time and the information for theread-out area start time, respectively, and the recording can beperformed during the period, which is called the recordable time, fromthe read-in area end time to the read-out area start time. The actualdata may be recorded on those areas during the above recordable time.FIG. 6 illustrates the concept of a typical optical disc, such as themusical CD-R disc having its nominal recordable time of 74 minutes, forexample. As shown in FIG. 6, the interval between the read-in endposition 31 a and read-out start position 32 across the tracks on thedisc 30 corresponds to at least 74 minutes.

In the regions following the above read-out start position (nominalrecordable end position), the read-out information, which indicates theend of the data recording area may be written. In the usual opticaldisc, however, some free regions may still be available at addressesfollowing the areas in which the read-out information has been written.This means that some recordable regions are available at addressestoward the outer peripheral side of the disc. Some servo errors, such asthe focusing error and tracking error, might occur if any recordingwould be attempted in those recordable regions. In order to ensure thatthe read-out information can be recorded without causing such servoerrors, some margins (free tracks that correspond to several minuteswhen they are expressed in terms of the time ) may be reserved byconsidering variances in individual optical discs.

In some recently developed CD-R or CD-RW discs, however, it may be seenfrom the track structure in FIG. 7 that the information may be writtenbeyond the nominal recordable end position (point A in FIG. 7) and asfar as the end of the available tracks (point B in FIG. 7) where errorsmight occur. Thus, the recording can be performed beyond the nominalrecordable time of the optical disc. This is called the “overburn-basedrecording” technique, which is becoming popular. Using thisoverburn-based recording technique, music can be recorded for more than74 minutes on a 74-minute musical CD-R disc, for example.

In the conventional hardware and software that implement theoverburn-based recording technique, however, the recording might occuras far as it is permitted, and if any out-of-tracking/out-of-focusingsituation should occur during the recording process, the recording wouldbe stopped there. This “at random” approach is the only way to solve theout-of-tracking/out-of-focusing problem.

When the recording was performed on the disc in the above manner, theread-out information might also not have been recorded on the discproperly. This would cause the out-of-tracking/out-of-focusing situationat the end of the tracks where the information has been recorded. Veryoften, this would cause the problem in that the information could not bereproduced properly. For the musical optical disc that contains themusic data, for example, this problem would appear as breaks orinterruptions in the music when it is replayed. This problem can beavoided if the user has a prior knowledge of the accurate recordabletime or recordable capacity of a particular optical disc, before theuser actually begins to record the data on the optical disc.

As an alternative to using the above method, one possible method wouldbe to determine any additional time on an empirical basis that can beextended for the recording, without causing the above problem, and toextend the recordable last position as far as the position obtained byadding the above extended time to the read-out area start time. Althoughthis method may permit the data or music to be recorded on the extendedarea on the disc, it still has the problem in that the additional timethat can be extended must be small in order to ensure that the recordingcan occur with safety, when it is considered that there are somevariances in the individual optical discs. For this reason, theadditional time cannot be extended sufficiently. The additional time maybe extended at the sacrifice of the recording safety, but if so, thetracking errors or focusing errors as described above would be causedfor some types of optical discs.

The present invention addresses the problems described above, and aprincipal object of the present invention is to provide an optical discrecording/reproducing apparatus and a data recording method for use withsuch apparatus, wherein the overburn-based recording technique that isimplemented by the apparatus and method allows the effective recordingtime and/or capacity of an optical disc to be extended and/or increasedwith safety and reliably.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In order to solve the problems mentioned above, the present inventionprovides several embodiments of the optical disc recording/reproducingapparatus and method.

Specifically, the optical disc recording/reproducing apparatus accordingto a first embodiment of the present invention includes:

(a) an optical disc drive; and

(b) an optical disc drive control unit, coupled to said optical discdrive, for issuing various instructions to said optical disc drive andfor obtaining the state information from said optical disc drive,wherein said optical disc drive control unit includes:

(c) a memory unit for storing therein the nominal recordable lastposition recorded on the optical disc;

(d) a command issuing unit for providing trial write instructions forsaid optical disc drive for causing said optical disc drive to write therecording position information on a trial basis as specified by thecorresponding trial write instruction;

(e) a result code obtaining unit for obtaining the error informationfrom said optical disc drive, if any error occurs as a result ofexecuting the trial write instruction; and

(f) a recordable last position setting unit, coupled to each respectiveone of said memory, command issuing unit and result code obtaining unit,for controlling said each respective one, wherein said recordable lastposition setting means is operated to set the end burst position basedon the error information obtained by said result code obtaining unit,and to set the recordable last position between said end burst positionand the nominal recordable last position stored in said memory unit.

The optical disc recording/reproducing apparatus according to a secondembodiment of the present invention is a specific form of the firstembodiment, wherein the trial writing operation may be performed byilluminating a laser beam upon the optical disc, said laser beam havinga power less than the power of the laser beam that is illuminated uponthe optical disc when the actual data is written.

The optical disc recording/reproducing apparatus according to a thirdembodiment of the present invention is a specific form of the firstembodiment, wherein it further includes a margin applying unit forsetting an interval between the end burst position and the recordablelast position.

The optical disc recording/reproducing apparatus according to a fourthembodiment of the present invention is a specific form of the firstembodiment, wherein it further includes a virtual reserved trackassuming unit for assuming, as virtual reserved tracks, the tracks fromthe recordable start position until the recordable last position, ormore specifically, until a particular position before and after therecordable last position, and for causing the trial writing operation tobe performed on those tracks sequentially, beginning with thatparticular position.

The optical disc recording/reproducing apparatus according to a fifthembodiment of the present invention is a specific form of the fourthembodiment, wherein the trial writing operation may be preformed byilluminating a laser beam upon the optical disc, said laser beam havinga power less than the power of the laser beam that is illuminated uponthe optical disc when the actual data is written.

The optical disc recording/reproducing apparatus according to a sixthembodiment of the present invention is a specific form of the fourthembodiment, wherein it further includes a margin applying unit forsetting an interval between the end burst position and the recordablelast position.

The optical disc recording/reproducing apparatus according to a seventhembodiment of the present invention is a specific form of the firstembodiment, wherein it further includes an overburn-based recordingpredetermining unit for determining the time required for recording adata source on an optical disc, and for asking the recordable lastposition setting unit to reestablish the recordable last position, ifthe required recording time exceeds the recordable last position.

The optical disc recording/reproducing apparatus according to an eighthembodiment of the present invention is a specific form of the seventhembodiment, wherein the trial writing operation may be performed byilluminating a laser beam upon the optical disc, said laser beam havinga power less than the power of the laser beam that is illuminated uponthe optical disc when the actual data is written.

The optical disc recording/reproducing apparatus according to a ninthembodiment of the present invention is a specific form of the seventhembodiment, wherein it further includes a margin applying unit forsetting an interval between the end burst position and the recordablelast position.

The optical disc recording/reproducing apparatus according to a tenthembodiment of the present invention is a specific form of any of thefirst through ninth embodiments, wherein it further includes an opticaldisc recording range setting unit for allowing the human operator torequest that the recording should be performed beyond the nominalrecordable last position, and for setting the optical disc recordingrange in accordance with the recordable last position when such requestis received from the operator, and for setting the optical discrecording range in accordance with the nominal recordable last positionwhen no such request is received from the operator.

The optical disc recording/reproducing apparatus according to aneleventh embodiment of the present invention is a specific form of thetenth embodiment, wherein the optical disc drive control unit isconfigured to record the data in accordance with the optical discrecordable range as set by the recording range setting means.

According to a twelfth embodiment, the present invention provides a datarecording method that may be used in conjunction with the optical discrecording/reproducing apparatus according to the various embodiments,comprising:

(a) a step of reading the information for the nominal recordable lastposition previously written on an optical disc;

(b) a step of performing a sequence of trial writing operations upon theoptical disc;

(c) a step of continuing to obtain every recording position on whicheach trial writing operation is performed, until the error informationis received, telling that an error occurs when the trial writingoperation is performed on a particular recording position;

(d) a step of setting the end burst position in accordance with theparticular recording position for which the error information isreceived; and

(e) a step of setting the recordable last position between the nominalrecordable last position and the end burst position.

The data recording method according to a thirteenth embodiment of thepresent invention is a specific form of the twelfth embodiment, whereinit further includes a step of moving the recording start position onwhich the trial writing operation is to be performed to the nominalrecordable last position or any position before or after the nominalrecordable last position, before the trial writing operation is actuallyperformed.

The data recording method according to a fourteenth embodiment of thepresent invention is a specific form of the method according to thetwelfth or thirteenth embodiment, wherein the step of setting therecordable last position includes a step of setting the recordable lastposition so that a read-out area can be reserved between the positionimmediately following the recordable last position and the end burstposition.

Specifically, the operation of the optical disc recording/reproducingapparatus according to the first embodiment as generically defined inclaim 1 is described. When an optical disc is loaded on the optical discdrive, the state information that is previously stored on the opticaldisc may be delivered from the optical disc to the optical disc drivecontrol unit. In response, the recordable last position setting unit,which is one component of the optical disc driver control unit, mayextract the recordable last position information from the stateinformation, and may store it in the memory. Then, the command issuingunit, which is one component of the optical disc drive control unit, maydeliver a trial write instruction to the optical disc drive, causing theoptical disc drive to write the data on the tracks thereon sequentially,in accordance with the address information as specified by the trialwrite instruction. The result code obtaining unit, which is onecomponent of the optical disc drive control unit, may receive theinformation from the optical disc drive that tells whether the trialwrite instruction is completed successfully or any error occurs when itis executed. The current recording position information in the memorymay be updated each time the trial write instruction is completedsuccessfully. The recordable last position setting unit, which is onecomponent of the optical disc drive control unit, may retrieve thecurrent recording position from the memory at the time when any errorinformation is received by the result code obtaining unit from theoptical disc drive, and may determine the end burst position at the endof the recording regions on the optical disc where an error might occurif any write should be attempted. Finally, the recordable last positionsetting unit may determine the recordable last position between thenominal recordable last position retrieved from the memory and the endburst position.

The maximum recordable time or maximum recording capacity that isavailable on the optical disc may be determined by obtaining therecordable last position under the control of the optical disc drivecontrol unit as described above. Then, the data can be recorded asrequired on the optical disc. Thus, the data recording can be performedbeyond the nominal recording time or capacity with safety and reliably.

The present invention may utilize commands that are supported as thestandard multimedia recording command architecture for use with aCD-R/RW drive. According to the present invention, the user can quicklyknow the actual recordable time or capacity for a particular opticaldisc by using such commands appropriately, before the user begins torecord the data on the disc. As such, the present invention provides aneffective and useful means to maintain the integrity of the recordeddata, and enhance the reliability of the optical disc drive.

The present invention is based on the observation that the nativerecordable time that is available on a particular optical disc may beknown by attempting to write on the disc on a trial basis (trial writingoperation). This trial writing operation is not intended to write anydata on the disc, but just simulates the writing operation. The trialwriting operation is actually intended to read the ATIP information fromthe disc by tracking the focusing and tracing the tracks on the disc.The laser that is illuminated on the optical disc in this trial writingoperation has the power that is less than the power of the laser that isilluminated when any actual data is written on the optical disc.Typically, the laser is illuminated with the reproducing level power.Thus, the trial writing operation may be performed on a write-onceoptical disc, that is, a CD-R optical disc.

As the ATIP information is being read during the trial writingoperation, it may be possible that the tracking or focusing will becomeinstable. This may make it impossible to trace the tracks, causing thewrite error to occur. Then, the point where the write error occurred maybe assumed to be the end burst position. The native maximum recordabletime that is available on the disc may last up to the end burstposition. Thus, according to the present invention, the recordable lastposition may be established between the nominal recordable last positionand the end burst position. It is desirable, however, that the read-outarea should be reserved in the areas following the data recording areas,and thus some margins should be reserved as the read-out areas. Thosemargins may be provided by the margin applying unit. The margin applyingunit may also provide some margins as a default, which may be overriddenas appropriate by the human operator. The relationships between opticaldiscs and their corresponding margins may be defined for each differenttype of optical discs, and those definitions may be maintained in adatabase so that they can be changed as appropriate for each type. Whensuch margins are provided, the end burst position may be determined foreach individual optical disc, and so there is no need of considering thevariances in individual optical discs. Thus, the margins that areprovided can be moderated, as opposed to the conventional methods.

It is supposed that the trial writing operation is performedsequentially, beginning with the start position of the program region.Then, for the 74-minute optical disc, the trial writing operation wouldhave to occur for more than 74 minutes in order to determine therecordable time. In other words, it would take too long time until therecordable time could be determined.

This may be avoided by reading the ATIP information from the opticaldisc when it is loaded on the optical disc drive, determining therecordable time from the ATIP information, and issuing an instruction tomove the optical pickup to the nominal recordable time position or anyposition immediately after or before the nominal recordable timeposition.

This instruction may be provided by a command called the “reservedtrack”, which is supported as the standard command on most CD-RW drivesthat are currently available on the commercial market. This commandcauses the optical pickup to move toward the outer peripheral side ofthe optical disc, where the trial write instruction is issued. Thisoperation may be performed by the virtual reserved track assuming unit.This virtual reserved track assuming unit may be operated to reduce thelength of the track considerably on which the trial writing operation isto occur. Thus, the time required to set the recordable last positioncan be reduced considerably, and the native recordable time orrecordable capacity that is available on a particular optical disc canbe determined accurately within such reduced time. This information mayhelp the user record the data on the optical disc with safety andreliability. The start position on which the trial writing operation maybe performed should be the position from which the recordable lastposition can be determined by finding the end burst position. In thisway, the time required to set the recordable last position can bereduced, when the start position is located nearer to the end. In viewof the fact that the optical disc drive has restrictions because of itsspecifications and in order to ensure that the end burst position can befound reliably, it is prerequisite that the trial writing operationshould be performed, beginning with the start position followed by thenominal recordable last position. In this regard, it is desirable thatthe start position should be located as rearward as possible andimmediately before the nominal recordable last position.

There are some types of data sources that may not require theoverburn-based recording. For those types of data sources, it would beuseless to write the data on a trial basis. In such cases, there isoverburn-based recording predetermining unit that may be used todetermine the recording time that will be required to record such datasources on an optical disc, which will be referred to herein as the“required recording time”. This required recording time may bedetermined from the information entered by the human operator, orotherwise may be determined from the information, such as TOCinformation, stored on a recording medium or from the time informationstored on the recording medium. Any extra operation may be avoided bydetermining whether the overburn-based recording is required or not,based on this required recording time.

There is also a recording range setting unit that may be used todetermine the recordable range. When the overburn-based recording isrequired, the recordable range may be determined from the recordablelast position obtained by the trial writing operation, and when theoverburn-based recording is not required, the recordable range may bedetermined from the nominal recordable last position. This avoids thatthe overburn-based recording will occur when it is not required. Inother words, the overburn-based recording may only be performed when itis required. The determination as to whether the overburn-basedrecording is required or not may be made by causing the optical disccontrol device to write the data, based on the recordable rangedetermined as above.

The data recording method according to the present invention may be usedin conjunction with the optical disc recording/reproducing apparatusthat has been described so far. Specifically, the method includes thesteps of obtaining the nominal recordable last position from an opticaldisc, continuing to perform the trial writing operations on the opticaldisc until any burst error occurs at the end of the disc, in order todetermine the end burst position, and determining the maximum recordableposition that is available on the disc from the end burst position. Themethod allows the native maximum recordable position that is availableon each individual optical disc to be determined, regardless of anyvariances that may exist in individual optical discs. Thus, theadditional time that is required for the overburn-based recording may beprovided by setting the recordable last position based on the abovenative recordable last position, and the overburn-based recording can beperformed with safety and reliably during the additional time.

Some margins may be provided between the recordable last position andend burst position, and the read-out information may be recordedreliably on those margins. As the margins may be provided without theneed of considering the variances in individual optical discs, themargins thus obtained can be moderated. Thus, the additional timerequired for the overburn-based recording between the nominal recordablelast position and the actual recordable last position can be extended.The data that is recorded during the additional time can maintain itsgood quality.

When a trial writing operation is performed, the time required for thetrial writing operation may be reduced considerably by moving the trialwriting start position to the nominal recordable last position or anyposition before or after the nominal recordable last position.

EFFECT OF THE INVENTION

It may be understood from the foregoing description that the opticaldisc recording/reproducing apparatus according to the present inventiongenerally includes:

(a) an optical disc drive; and

(b) an optical disc drive control unit, coupled to said optical discdrive, for issuing various instructions to said optical disc drive andfor obtaining the state information from said optical disc drive,wherein said optical disc drive control unit includes:

(c) a memory unit for storing therein the nominal recordable lastposition recorded on the optical disc;

(d) a command issuing unit for providing trial write instructions forsaid optical disc drive for causing said optical disc drive to write therecording position information on a trial basis as specified by thecorresponding trial write instruction;

(e) a result code obtaining unit for obtaining the error informationfrom said optical disc drive, if any error occurs as a result ofexecuting the trial write instruction; and

(f) a recordable last position setting unit, coupled to each respectiveone of said memory unit, command issuing unit and result code obtainingunit, for controlling said each respective one, wherein said recordablelast position setting unit may be operated to set the end burst positionbased on the error information obtained by said result code receivingunit, and to set the recordable last position between said end burstposition and the nominal recordable last position stored in said memoryunit.

It may also be understood from the foregoing description that the datarecording method according to the present invention generally comprises:

(a) a step of reading the information for the nominal recordable lastposition previously written on an optical disc;

(b) a step of performing a sequence of trial writing operations upon theoptical disc;

(c) a step of continuing to obtain every recording position on whicheach trial writing operation is performed, until the error informationis received, telling that an error occurs when the trial writingoperation is performed on a particular recording position and theinformation;

(d) a step of setting the end burst position in accordance with theparticular recording position for which the error information isreceived; and

(e) a step of setting the recordable last position between the nominalrecordable last position and the end burst position.

The apparatus and method described so far are particularly advantageousin that the nominal recordable time may be extended as the additionaltime during which the overburn-based recording can occur. Thus, theinformation can be recorded and reproduced with safety and reliably. Forthe musical data, it can maintain its good sound quality.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a general schematic diagram illustrating the configuration ofone embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a conceptual schematic diagram of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the processing steps;

FIG. 4 represents how data is recorded on a track after it isover-burned in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of the processing steps according to anotherembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a conceptual view of a CD-ROM disc; and

FIG. 7 represents how data is recorded on a track in the usual mannerand how the data is recorded on such track after it is over-burned inaccordance with the prior art.

BEST MODES OF EMBODYING THE INVENTION First Embodiment

One embodiment of the present invention is now described by referring tothe figures.

FIG. 1 represents the CD-RW recording/reproducing system according toone embodiment of the present invention.

A CD-RW drive 1 is connected to a personal computer 2 through any of thewell-known interface cables, such as ATAPI, SCSI, USB, IEEE 1394 and thelike.

The personal computer 2 includes a central processing unit (CPU) 3, ahard disc drive (HDD) 4, and a random access memory (RAM) 5, and has anyof the well-known operating systems installed thereon, on which programssuch as application programs may be running. In addition, the personalcomputer 2 includes a display unit such as display 6, and operatingunits 7 such as keyboard, mouse. The present invention is primarilyintended to provide a particular program (writing program) that may runon the personal computer 2.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual block diagram illustrating the components of thepersonal computer 2 that are implemented in hardware, software or acombination of both.

A command issuing means 10 is a functional component of an optical discdrive control unit 20 within CPU 3, which will be described below, andis programmed to provide a variety of commands, such as writing data,reading data, and the like, to the CD-RW drive 1.

A result code obtaining means 11 is a functional component of theoptical disc drive control unit 20 that is programmed to obtain theresults of executing the commands, and any information such as errormessages from the CD-RW drive 1.

A memory unit 12 includes a random access memory (RAM) 5 for storing thecommand execution results and any information such as error messagestransferred from the CD-RW drive 1 via the result code obtaining unit11. The memory unit 12 may store ATIP information (including theinformation such as recordable start position and recordable lastposition) that is received from a CD-R disc or CD-RW disc when it isloaded on the CD-RW drive 1.

A write data supply unit 13 is a functional component of the opticaldisc drive control unit 20 that contains the data that is delivered tothe CD-RW drive 1 in response to the user requesting that the data is tobe recorded on the disc. In this embodiment, the write data may bestored in a hard disc drive (HDD) 4 that is installed as storage meanson the personal computer 2. This unit 13 is implemented by CPU 3, HDD 4and software programs. Although HDD 4 is shown, any other mass storagemedia such as CD-ROM, MO and the like may be employed.

Each of the units described above is connected to the CD-RW drive 1 viaan interface cable 14.

A control device 15 is a functional component of CPU 3 that is connectedto each of the command issuing unit 10, result code obtaining unit 11,memory unit 12 and write data supply unit 13, and is programmed tocontrol them. The control device 15 also provides the function ofsetting the recordable last position on an optical disc.

A virtual reserved track assuming unit 16, which is connected to thecontrol device 15, is programmed to allow the tracks up to a particulartrack specified by an address to be assumed as virtual reserved tracks,and cause the optical pickup to be moved to the end of the reservedtracks so that it can access that track for recording or reproducing thedata.

A margin applying unit 17, which is connected to the control device 15,is programmed to provide some margins between the recordable lastposition and the end burst position when this unit 17 is operated to setthe recordable last position. The recordable last position and the endburst position will be described below. The values for the margins maypreviously be programmed as defaults, which may be overridden asappropriate by the human operator. This unit may be implemented by CPU 3and software programs. The unit 17 may contain a database, which may bestored in HDD 4.

The software programs described above may be stored in HDD 4 or anyother auxiliary storage means such as a floppy disc (FD).

An optical disc drive control unit 20 may be configured to include thecommand issuing unit 10, result code obtaining unit 11, memory unit 12,write data supply unit 13, control unit 15, reserved track assuming unit16 and margin applying unit 17.

Specifically, the control device 15 may control the command issuing unit10 so that it can deliver an appropriate command, including a trialwrite operation, to the optical disc drive 1, may receive a result codeassociated with the command through the result code obtaining unit 11,may check the result code for any error, and may set the recordable lastposition on an optical disc accordingly.

The operation of the apparatus described above is now described byreferring to the flowchart shown in FIG. 3.

When an optical disc such as a CD-RW disc (not shown) is loaded on theCD-RW disc drive 1, the drive 1 may detect that the optical disc is nowloaded, notifying the personal computer 2 that the optical disc has beenloaded (step a1). This notification may be received by the result codeobtaining unit 11, which may transfer it to the control device 15. Inresponse to the notification, the control device 15 may direct thecommand issuing unit 10 to obtain the ATIP information from the opticaldisc. In response, the command issuing unit 10 may deliver theappropriate command to the CD-RW. disc drive 1 to obtain the ATIPinformation (step a2). The CD-RW disc drive 1 may read the ATIPinformation from the wobbles on the optical disc, and may then transferit to the personal computer 2. The ATIP information may be transferredfrom the personal computer 2 to the control device 15, which may storeit in the memory unit 12 (step a3). The result code contains theinformation for the nominal recordable last position, which may bereceived by the control device 15 (step a4).

Then, the command issuing unit 10 may deliver a test write mode commandunder control of the control device 15 to set the write commandoperation to a trial write mode (step a5). The reserved track assumingunit 16 may also be informed that the operation has been set to the testwrite mode. Then, the unit 16 may direct the command issuing unit 10under control of the control device 15 to deliver a reserved trackcommand (step a6) that causes the optical pickup (not shown) on theCD-RW disc drive 1 to be moved to the position immediately before thenominal recordable last position. This is because there are some typesof disc drives that could not accept any write command if the recordingstart position should be located just on the nominal recordable lastposition. In this embodiment, the recording start position may be set toeight frames before (point a in FIG. 4) the nominal recordable lastposition (point A in FIG. 4) (step a7).

When the result code obtaining unit 11 receives the result code from theCD-RW disc drive 1, telling that the steps a1 through a7 have beencompleted, it may notify the control device 15 of that. In response, thecontrol device 15 may cause the command issuing unit 10 to deliver awrite command (step a8). The write command specifies the recording startaddress and the number of blocks. For the trial write command, the trialwriting operation may be performed by illuminating the laser beam ontothe optical disc. In this case, the laser beam has the same power as thelaser beam that is illuminated when the data is reproduced from theoptical disc.

As each trial writing operation is performed, the information as towhether the trial writing operation has been completed successfully ornot may be sent in the form of a result code from the CD-RW disc drive 1to the result code obtaining unit 11 (step a9).

At step a10, the determination is made to check whether an error hasoccurred or not. If it is determined that no error has occurred, theprocess proceeds to the next recording start address (step ab1), fromwhich it goes on to step a8 where another write command is delivered.Then, the process is repeated as described above.

If it is determined at step a10 that an error has occurred, therecording position where the error occurred (point B in FIG. 4) may beobtained. The test writing operation is stopped there (step a11).

Then, a certain margin value (for example, 60 minutes) may be subtractedfrom the recording position (recording position information) obtained asabove (step a12), and the resulting value may be set as the recordablelast position (point C in FIG. 4), which may be stored in the memoryunit 12 and may be displayed on the display unit 6 (step a13). The abovemargin value may previously be set, and may be provided from the marginapplying unit 17.

The optical disc drive control unit 20 may cause the data to be recordedas far as the maximum recordable last position thus obtained, beginningwith the read-in end position. Then, the optical disc drive control unit20 may cause the read-out information to be recorded during the longestrecording time, beginning with the recordable last position. Thisconcludes the data recording process.

It may be appreciated from the foregoing description that the apparatusand method according to the present invention allow the data recordingto be performed with high safety, reliability and efficiency byproviding the recordable time more than the nominal recording time thatis available on a particular optical disc.

It should be understood that the data that may be recorded according tothe present invention includes, but is not limited to, all types ofdata, such as the musical data and program data.

In the embodiment described above, the CD-RW disc is employed as anoptical disc on which the data may be recorded. This is only oneexample, and the present invention is not limited to the CD-RW disc.That is, any other types of optical discs, such as CD-R, MO, MD and thelike, may also be employed.

In the embodiment described above, the HDD is employed as the datasource from which the data may be retrieved and recorded on anyappropriate optical disc. It should be understood, however, that thedata source may come from all types of recording media, such as CR-ROMand the like, and any other external sources that are broadcast asprograms including music.

Second Embodiment

In the preceding embodiment, using the overburn-based recording is theprerequisite to recording the data on an optical disc. In the secondembodiment, the overburn-based recording is provided as an option. Thus,the user may use or may not use the overburn-based recording when thedata is to be recorded on the optical disc.

Specifically, the control device 15 may provide the overburn-basedrecording predetermining function that determines the time required torecord any particular data source (required recording time), comparesthe required recording time with the recordable time that is availableon a particular optical disc, and sets the recordable last position ifit is found that the required recording time is longer than therecordable time on the optical disc. The control device 15 may alsoprovide the recoding range setting function that allows the user torequest the overburn-based recording, and may set the recordable rangein accordance with the above recordable last position if theoverburn-based recording is requested, or otherwise may set therecordable range in accordance with the nominal recordable last positionon the optical disc if the overburn-based recording is not requested.

The operation of this embodiment is now described by referring to theflowchart in FIG. 5.

The first step is to determine the time required to record anyparticular data source on an optical disc (step b1). When the datasource is stored in HDD, the required recording time may be determinedfrom the capacity of the file that contains the data source. When thedata source is stored in an optical disc or any other recording medium,the required recording time may be determined from TOC previously storedin that recording medium. The next step is to determine the nominalrecording time that is available on a particular optical disc on whichthe data source is being recorded (step b2). Specifically, the nominalrecording time may be determined by causing the optical disc drive toretrieve the ATIP information from the optical disc loaded on theoptical disc drive, as it is done in the preceding embodiment. Morespecifically, the nominal recording time may be determined from theprogram region start position and nominal recordable last position(read-out start position) in the ATIP information.

At step b3, the required recording time may be compared with the nominalrecording time. This may be accomplished by the control device 15. Whenit is determined at step b3 that the required recording time is lessthan the nominal recordable time, this means that the overburn-basedrecording is not required. Then, the process proceeds to step bb1, wherethe recordable time is set by using the nominal recordable last position(step bb2), and the usual recording then occurs (step bb3). Then, theprocess ends. When it is determined at step b3, on the other hand, thatthe required recording time is greater than the nominal recording time,the operator may determine whether the overburn-based recording shouldbe selected or not (step b4). This selection may be made by causing thecontrol device 15 to provide a prompt to ask the operator to input thechoice and by permitting the operator to respond to the prompt throughthe operating unit 7 (keyboard or mouse). If the overburn-basedrecording is not requested, the process goes to step bb1. If theoverburn-based recording is requested, the process proceeds to step b5,where the control device 15 causes its overburn-based recordingpredetermining function to set the recordable last position. Therecordable last position may be determined by causing the control device15 to follow the routine shown in FIG. 3. After the recordable lastposition is determined, the process goes to step b6, where therecordable time is set by the recordable time setting function inaccordance with the recordable last position. The recordable time may bedisplayed on the display 6, as it is done in the preceding embodiment.Then, the process goes to step b7, where the operator may determinewhether the overburn-based recording should be selected or not. Thisselection may be made by allowing the operator to respond to the promptfrom the control device 15 in the same manner as step b4. If therequired recording time is still greater than the nominal recordabletime when the overburn-based recording is requested, it is possible tocause the control device 15 to refuse the request for the overburn-basedrecording. This may be combined with the input operation of theoperator. When the overburn-based recording is not requested, theprocess ends. When the overburn-based recording is requested at step b7,the process proceeds to step b8 where the overburn-based recording isperformed. Then, the process ends.

It may be appreciated from the above description that the overburn-basedrecording may be performed effectively whenever it is required.

In each of the first and second embodiments, it is assumed that theoptical disc drive that is installed on or connected to the personalcomputer is used. As an alternative to using such optical disc drive,the recording/reproducing apparatus that is dedicated to optical discsand provides the functions described above may be used, or the CD-Rrecorder that provides the reproducing functions for the data source maybe used.

POSSIBLE INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS OF THE INVENTION

Although the present invention has been described with reference to theoptical disc recording/reproducing apparatus and the data recordingmethod for use with such apparatus according to the particularembodiments of the present invention, the present invention may beapplied to all types of optical discs, such as CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, MOand the like, on which the information such as addresses has previouslybeen written on the wobbles.

1. An optical disc recording/reproducing apparatus including: (a) anoptical disc drive; and (b) an optical disc drive control unit coupledto said optical disc drive, for issuing various instructions to saidoptical disc drive and retrieving the state information from saidoptical disc drive, said disc drive control unit including: (c) memorymeans for storing the nominal recordable last position previouslyrecorded on an optical disc; (d) command issuing means for issuing trialwrite instructions to said optical disc drive, each of said trial writeinstructions specifying a particular recording position on which a trialwriting operation is to occur; (e) result code obtaining means forobtaining the error information from the optical disc drive if any erroris detected when the trial writing operation is performed as specifiedby said trial write instruction issued from said command issuing means;and (f) recordable last position setting means for controlling each ofsaid memory means, said command issuing means and said result codeobtaining means, and for determining the end burst position based on theerror information obtained by said result code obtaining means, and forsetting the recordable last position between said end burst position andsaid nominal recordable last position stored in said memory means. 2.The optical disc recording/reproducing apparatus as defined in claim 1,wherein the trial writing operation is performed by illuminating a laserbeam upon the optical disc, said laser beam having a power less than thepower of a laser beam that is illuminated when actual data is written orthe optical disc.
 3. The optical disc recording/reproducing apparatus asdefined in claim 1, wherein said optical disc drive control unit furtherincludes margin applying means for determining an interval between saidend burst position and said recordable last position.
 4. The opticaldisc recording/reproducing apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein saidoptical disc drive control unit further includes virtual reserved trackassuming means for assuming the tracks from said recordable startposition until said recordable last position or until a particularposition before or after said recordable last position as virtualreserved tracks, and for allowing a sequence of trial writing operationsto be performed, beginning with said particular position as a startposition.
 5. The optical disc recording/reproducing apparatus as definedin claim 4, wherein the trial writing operation is performed byilluminating a laser beam upon the optical disc, said laser beam havinga power less than the power of a laser beam that is illuminated whenactual data is written on the optical disc.
 6. The optical discrecording/reproducing apparatus as defined in claim 4, wherein saidoptical disc drive control unit further includes margin applying meansfor determining an interval between said end burst position and saidrecordable last position.
 7. The optical disc recording/reproducingapparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein said optical disc drive controlunit further includes overburn-based recording predetermining means fordetermining the time required to record a data source on an optical discand for instructing said recordable last position setting means that arecordable last position is to be set, if it is determined that saidrequired recording time exceeds the recordable last position.
 8. Theoptical disc recording/reproducing apparatus as defined in claim 7,wherein the trial writing operation is performed by illuminating a laserbeam upon the optical disc, said laser beam having a power less than thepower of a laser beam that is illuminated when actual data is written onthe optical disc.
 9. The optical disc recording/reproducing apparatus asdefined in claim 7, wherein said optical disc drive control unit furtherincludes margin applying means for determining an interval between saidend burst position and said recordable last position.
 10. The opticaldisc recording/reproducing apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein saidoptical disc drive control unit further includes optical disc recordingrange setting means for setting an optical disc recordable rangeaccording to said recordable last position when a request that data isto be recorded beyond said nominal recordable last position is receivedfrom a human operator and for setting an optical disc recordable rangeaccording to said nominal recordable last position when no such requestis received from the human operator, if the human operator is allowed tomake such requests.
 11. The optical disc recording/reproducing apparatusas defined in claim 10, wherein said optical disc drive control unit isconfigured to cause the data to be recorded in accordance with therecordable range as set by said recording range setting means.
 12. Adata recording method for use with the optical discrecording/reproducing apparatus, comprising: (a) a step of reading thenominal recordable last position information stored in an optical disc;(b) a step of performing a sequence of trial writing operations againstthe optical disc; (c) a step of obtaining a recording position on whicheach trial writing operation is performed, said step being repeateduntil an error occurs during a particular trial writing operation andthe information associated with the error is received; (d) a step ofsetting an end burst position in accordance with the recording positionon which the error has occurred during the particular trial writingoperation, when the information associated with the error is receivedand a step of setting a recordable last position between said nominalrecordable last position and said end burst position.
 13. The datarecording method for use with the optical disc recording/reproducingapparatus as defined in claim 12, further including a step of moving therecording start position for the trial writing operation to the nominalrecordable last position or any position before or after said nominalrecordable last position, before the trial writing operation is started.14. The data recording method for use with the optical discrecording/reproducing apparatus as defined in claim 12, wherein the stepof setting a recordable last position includes a step of setting arecordable last position in such a manner that a read-out area can beprovided between any position before or after the recordable lastposition and the end burst position.
 15. The optical discrecording/reproducing apparatus as defined in claim 2, wherein saidoptical disc drive control unit further includes optical disc recordingrange setting means for setting an optical disc recordable rangeaccording to said recordable last position when a request that data isto be recorded beyond said nominal recordable last position is receivedfrom a human operator and for setting an optical disc recordable rangeaccording to said nominal recordable last position when no such requestis received from the human operator, if the human operator is allowed tomake such requests.
 16. The optical disc recording/reproducing apparatusas defined in claim 3, wherein said optical disc drive control unitfurther includes optical disc recording range setting means for settingan optical disc recordable range according to said recordable lastposition when a request that data is to be recorded beyond said nominalrecordable last position is received from a human operator and forsetting an optical disc recordable range according to said nominalrecordable last position when no such request is received from the humanoperator, if the human operator is allowed to make such requests. 17.The optical disc recording/reproducing apparatus as defined in claim 4,wherein said optical disc drive control unit further includes opticaldisc recording range setting means for setting an optical discrecordable range according to said recordable last position when arequest that data is to be recorded beyond said nominal recordable lastposition is received from a human operator and for setting an opticaldisc recordable range according to said nominal recordable last positionwhen no such request is received from the human operator, if the humanoperator is allowed to make such requests.
 18. The optical discrecording/reproducing apparatus as defined in claim 5, wherein saidoptical disc drive control unit further includes optical disc recordingrange setting means for setting an optical disc recordable rangeaccording to said recordable last position when a request that data isto be recorded beyond said nominal recordable last position is receivedfrom a human operator and for setting an optical disc recordable rangeaccording to said nominal recordable last position when no such requestis received from the human operator, if the human operator is allowed tomake such requests.
 19. The optical disc recording/reproducing apparatusas defined in claim 6, wherein said optical disc drive control unitfurther includes optical disc recording range setting means for settingan optical disc recordable range according to said recordable lastposition when a request that data is to be recorded beyond said nominalrecordable last position is received from a human operator and forsetting an optical disc recordable range according to said nominalrecordable last position when no such request is received from the humanoperator, if the human operator is allowed to make such requests. 20.The optical disc recording/reproducing apparatus as defined in claim 7,wherein said optical disc drive control unit further includes opticaldisc recording range setting means for setting an optical discrecordable range according to said recordable last position when arequest that data is to be recorded beyond said nominal recordable lastposition is received from a human operator and for setting an opticaldisc recordable range according to said nominal recordable last positionwhen no such request is received from the human operator, if the humanoperator is allowed to make such requests.
 21. The optical discrecording/reproducing apparatus as defined in claim 8, wherein saidoptical disc drive control unit further includes optical disc recordingrange setting means for setting an optical disc recordable rangeaccording to said recordable last position when a request that data isto be recorded beyond said nominal recordable last position is receivedfrom a human operator and for setting an optical disc recordable rangeaccording to said nominal recordable last position when no such requestis received from the human operator, if the human operator is allowed tomake such requests.
 22. The optical disc recording/reproducing apparatusas defined in claim 9, wherein said optical disc drive control unitfurther includes optical disc recording range setting means for settingan optical disc recordable range according to said recordable lastposition when a request that data is to be recorded beyond said nominalrecordable last position is received from a human operator and forsetting an optical disc recordable range according to said nominalrecordable last position when no such request is received from the humanoperator, if the human operator is allowed to make such requests. 23.The data recording method for use with the optical discrecording/reproducing apparatus as defined in claim 13, wherein the stepof setting a recordable last position includes a step of setting arecordable last position in such a manner that a read-out area can beprovided between any position before or after the recordable lastposition and the end burst position.